I remember once in fourth grade, we had a very long lesson about weather and climate, and the teacher had clearly worked very hard at giving us practical tactile ways to show exactly how weather works. So we had multiple interactive activities, ending with a heat lamp over a bucket of sand and a bucket of water to show that the sun heats up land much faster than it heats up the ocean. Cute, right? Well, come test time, I was apparently the only person to get that question wrong. I said that the sun heats up the ocean faster. The teacher confronted me about it. She did not understand how after that entire lesson, I still didn't grasp the concept. I, of course, stood up for myself. If you wanted me to know that, Mrs. Patton, you should've just told me that.
I did not get recess that day.
Have you noticed that we talk all the time and still somehow manage to say very little? We've managed to create a sort of cultural expectation for words to fill whatever space that we're in while completely disregarding what purpose those words serve. Between us habitually asking each other, "How are you?" without caring in the slightest about the answer, gorging our minds on bite-sized chunks of information on Facebook or Twitter, or even whipping out our phones looking for something to distract us from imminent discomfort.
Along this line of thought, we have also become completely and utterly terrified of silence. Think about it, pretty much the only time we use the word silence in casual conversation, it is either preceded by the word 'awkward' or followed by 'of the lambs.' Our desire is for our words to completely fill a space or time, much like packing peanuts fill a large box. They have almost no weight, but they keep our days comfortable enough for us to survive and do it all again the next day.
And I think that in some ways, we actually defend this phenomenon as being part of a good Christian act. It is perfectly polite to engage my brother or sister in conversation. This is showing love. Or, at the very least, this is showing a basic kindness while I search for a way to show them love.
I want to argue (one of my favorite ways to use words) that we're just missing the mark when it comes to our speech. And no, the irony of me saying this in a long, drawn out blog post is not lost on me, but the rule is whoever identifies the problem gets to act like it doesn't affect them. So let's dive in.
Consider ships: They are so large that strong winds are needed to drive them. But pilots direct their ships wherever they want with a little rudder. In the same way, even though the tongue is a small part of the body, it boasts wildly.
Think about this: A small flame can set a whole forest on fire. The tongue is a small flame of fire, a world of evil at work in us. It contaminates our entire lives. Because of it, the circle of life is set on fire. The tongue itself is set on fire by the flames of hell.
People can tame and already have tamed every kind of animal, bird, reptile, and fish. No one can tame the tongue, though. It is a restless evil, full of deadly poison. With it we both bless the Lord and Father and curse human beings made in God’s likeness. Blessing and cursing come from the same mouth. My brothers and sisters, it just shouldn’t be this way!
Both fresh water and salt water don’t come from the same spring, do they? My brothers and sisters, can a fig tree produce olives? Can a grapevine produce figs? Of course not, and fresh water doesn’t flow from a saltwater spring either. - James 3:4-12 (CEB)Raise your hands if this makes you uncomfortable. Go ahead.
When thinking about one of the most important body parts of us living as Christians, I would not arrive at the tongue very quickly. I might start with the heart, soul, mind, and strength. But tongue? As someone who talks all the time, that scares me quite a bit.
There's one part of this passage that really caught my attention, though, and it's really easy to miss. James says that with our tongues we bless and curse. He then goes on to say that a saltwater cannot produce freshwater, and vice versa. I won't lie but it took me a couple readings to really grasp the implication there.
Your mouth is either one of blessing or one of cursing - not both.
For James, there's no grey area. Which means that if ours is a mouth that curses, it's completely impossible for any true blessing to come from it. Anything positive or uplifting that might come out of our mouths is completely negated by speech that insults, belittles, or tears down. In the Facebook era, then, the odds are not on our side.
So let me ask a question: is your mouth one of blessing or one of curses?
Or, to take it in a slightly different direction, how much of your speech is devoted to spreading the love of God?
Can you imagine if the only things we said were things that brought glory to God? I won't lie to you, I would not be speaking very frequently at the rate I'm headed. The vast majority of words out of my mouth have, at some point, appeared on daytime television. And while I don't think that goofy TV quotes necessarily fall into the "cursing" category, how much of that really serves the Kingdom of God?
Here's what I'm trying to get at. I'm not saying that to be a good Christian, you have to attempt to loudly preach a ground-breaking sermon everywhere you go. Trust me, I've tried, and now I'm not allowed to go back to Cinemark theaters. But I think we do need to be a little more careful with what we're putting out into the world. We do need to start evaluating our speech based on this litmus test, and we need to be extremely careful about how we're representing our God. Because if we are wearing the title of Christian, our speech needs to reflect that.
As always, I promise, I'm preaching more to myself than any of you. I fail miserably at this. Daily. But I've decided that I want my mouth to be one that produces blessing. And that takes discipline and consistency.
In the last week, I've prayed for the Spirit to enter my heart, Christ to be the focus of my mind, and for God to grant me strength. I hope you'll join me in asking that my tongue be transformed next.
Do not let any unwholesome talk come out of your mouths, but only what is helpful for building others up according to their needs, that it may benefit those who listen. - Ephesians 4:29~RJS~
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